


Into Something Rich and Strange

by huxualorentation



Category: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Brotherhood, Gen, Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28832097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huxualorentation/pseuds/huxualorentation
Summary: Magic enables Vortigern to see things. He starts having visions of two warriors living in a future world, and it's the most beautiful and painful thing he ever saw.
Kudos: 4





	Into Something Rich and Strange

**Author's Note:**

> Title is obviously from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act I Scene II:
> 
> Full fathom five thy father lies,  
> Of his bones are coral made,  
> Those are pearl that were his eyes,  
> Nothing of him that doth fade,  
> But doth suffer a sea-change  
> Into something rich and strange.  
> Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell;  
> Now I hear them:  
> Ding dong, bell!

As his sword and Uther's clash in their mock duel, he thinks of bats clashing. The bat-to-bat mock fight is an important part of the rigorous routine keeping the two minds of the brother warriors of his visions finely attuned to each other, ready for melting into one when the two young men enter the giant war machine that slayers the sea monsters.

 _A future where the power of two connected minds can kill monsters? Oh, I pray the Lord that your vision comes to pass, brother! What a wonderful thing that would be_ , Uther has exclaimed when Vortigern told him. Then he has pulled Vortigern close. _And they are brothers, these warriors from a time to come. That's where the force of their mental bond comes from. Oh, how wonderful. And how proud I am of your magic, brother mine. These visions of hope come to you because you are a good man, a great man. You're nothing like Mordred._

For sure, the two monster-slaying warriors yet to come do love each other, wholeheartedly. Like Uther loves Vortigern and like Vortigern can't love Uther anymore, Uther who day in and day out proves himself too kind-hearted to make a proper king.

***

It's not like Uther is actually dead, isn't it? He has turned into stone, into a rock, so there's not an actual corpse. He will never know decomposition.

Just like the elder of the two warriors from the future world never will. Or perhaps he will: bodies do decompose underwater, albeit more slowly; Vortigern, though, wants to believe that he will turn into corals and pearls. He wishes he were by the survivor's side as he desperately cries for his dead brother; he wishes he could sing softly to him, urging him to imagine his brother's corpse turning into something beautiful, never to decompose.

***

Magic takes a toll on you. Vortigern is feeling completely drained, after casting spells for protecting Londinium against the threat posed by the Northmen; his head, as per usual, aches, and he knows from experience that his nose will soon start bleeding. 

"What does ail my lord, my dearie?" Mercia enquires, quoting from the old song, and Vortigern thinks of the young man from the future, because the answering line would be _Oh, brother dear, let my bed be made_ , and both him and that young man no longer have someone to say these words to.


End file.
